Friday, September 5, 2008

Austrailia*, Austalia* (for Australia, etc.)

When hiking in Australia, make sure not to lose sight of the trail. There were 13 hits for Austrailia* and 16 for Austalia* in OhioLINK at last count. In Norman Lindsey's famous children's book The Magic Pudding, various characters take successive bites of the eponymous foodstuff while never diminishing the whole. This magic fails to work on words, though, which are not self-regenerating but rely on us to keep them properly intact.

(Photo of Magic Pudding sculpture in Lavender Bay, Sydney, from the New York Review of Books website.)